OUR TRIP

WOW!!! It has been a long time since my last post and a LOT has happened since that post.  I will give you a short version of all of the happening in our household since......
On October 18, 2010, we received a court date for December 8th.  Honestly, we were pretty disappointed because we were hoping to be making our second trip around that time.  But, we just trusted that God had everything under control and stayed busy with everyday life.  I will say though, that the time passed quickly, especially with Halloween and Thanksgiving thrown in there.  We also received two other updates before our first trip.

On December 5, 2010 Will and I left for Ethiopia.  We flew from Nashville to Washington DC and from DC to Ethiopia with a stop in Rome to refuel.  That day was a very emotional day for me.  I was torn between two very different worlds, each world with one of my babies.  It was very hard to leave Liam.  To think that we were going to be so far away and couldn't make a quick trip back if we had to made me sick to my stomach.  But, I had to keep reminding myself that God had it all under control and it was all going to be ok.  On the other hand, I was sooooo excited meet our precious Tytus.  Just to think that we were days away from something I never thought would happen took my breath away.  Those things combined with a very LONG day of travel, airports and airplanes made me weepy.  And can I just say that God is sooooo good!  He provided people all along our trip to encourage us and to connect with.  He even put an Ethiopian couple who are also adopting in our path, which was very helpful when we landed in Africa.
We arrived in Ethiopia around 8:30pm Ethiopian time on Monday, December 6, 2010.  Once we got our visas, luggage and money exchanged we headed to our guesthouse.  When we arrived, it was pretty quiet.  Everyone was already in bed.  We had a bowl of soup (our first taste of Ethiopian cooking, and it was delicious) and went to bed.
On Tuesday, after an awesome breakfast of pancakes and meeting the awesome families that we were going to spend the week with, we went to meet Tytus!  WOW!  What a moment!  Words just can't even describe it!  It was soooo surreal to be actually holding the child that we had come to know through pictures and email updates.  Like I said, I honestly thought that this day would never come.  After about an hour and a half of visiting with Tytus (which included feeding him lunch), we had to leave.  We then went to lunch and went back to our agency office for court training.  After court training we went to a couple of shops to do some shopping.  Dinner that night was a traditional Ethiopian meal. It was interesting, but I tried everything that was on the tray that was not spicy.  And believe it or not, I actually liked a few things.

 The Restaurant

 Will and I at the traditional Ethiopian meal

 Traditional Ethiopian Food

    They even served POPCORN!  Nothing bridges the culture gap like popcorn!

Wednesday was court day!  After an even more amazing breakfast of homemade cinnamon rolls we headed off to the courthouse.  I was soooo nervous because I have never been to court before, let alone court in another country.  Thankfully we had training on what to expect.  When it was finally our turn, we were called into the judge's office.  She asked us a few questions, signed the papers and said, "He's yours."  Wow!  What powerful words!!!!  There were 6 couples that went to court and we all passed, so we went to a cafe down the street from the courthouse for a celebratory mocha.  Now, I'm not a coffee drinker, but that mocha was amazing.  Maybe it tasted so good because of what it followed :)

 Celebratory Mocha

Will and I after court

Thursday, *SIGH* our last day.....We had an awesome morning!!!  We got to spend several hours with Tytus.  We played most of time as well as feed him lunch.  I also rocked him to sleep.  When it was time to leave, I took him up to his bed.  I didn't cry too much when we left because I knew that he was in such good hands.  We were able to see the care he was getting first hand and had complete confidence that the nannies love our boy.  It wasn't until we got back to the agency office that I lost it.  They sent Will and I up to a meeting room to wait on the others to get there.  When we walk into the room it was full of families who were all taking their babies home.  That was a slap in the face to me and I just lost it. 

Once the other families got there we went to lunch and then did some more shopping.  After our shopping excursion we went back to our guesthouse to eat and get our things to begin our journey home.  Leaving was very bittersweet.  We had not only met our little Tytus, but we had made some really good friends along the way and fallen in love with Africa.  But we were also excited to get home to sweet Liam.

Goodbye Tytus....Until we meet again

Since our trip we have had lots of things going on.  Mainly staying busy with things at church and preparing for the celebration of Jesus's birthday.  Add in the New Year and that pretty much brings us to the present.  

I truly apologize that this post was so long, but it has been a long time since my last post.......